A cheap shot: Bachmann went too far with vaccine rhetoric

Charles Dharapak, The Associated PressRepublican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann needs to tell Americans she was wrong in her comments about a vaccine guarding against cervical cancer being a "potentially dangerous drug."

We are used to political candidates trashing their opponents and too often using only a part of the truth on an issue to fit their criticism.

But GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has not only painted an unfair picture of an executive order signed by fellow candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry, she has potentially harmed a public health effort with her flippant comments.

During a Republican presidential debate last week, she slammed Perry for an executive order he signed in 2007 — it was later overturned — to make a vaccine protecting against cervical cancer and other diseases mandatory for 12-year-old girls in his state.

“To have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat-out wrong,” she said during the debate.
That comment was bad enough: She was taking liberty with the truth given that parents had the option to opt out of the vaccine program.

But where Bachmann went beyond that and into the depths of irresponsibility is when, on national television, she called the vaccine a “potentially dangerous drug.” Even worse, she later said, with no facts to back her up, that a mother told her that her daughter “suffered mental retardation” from receiving the vaccine.

Doctors, public health leaders and others have been quick to counter her assertion, saying there is no evidence the human papillomavirus vaccine causes serious side effects.

They point out the incidents of women contracting and dying from cervical cancer has dropped since two drugs providing the vaccine, Gardasil and Cervarix, have been available to the public. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they are only effective if they are given before a girl — and increasingly a boy — is sexually active.

This is the kind of empty accusation that can hurt years of public health education about a disease that has claimed many of our mothers, sisters and daughters. Supporters already had to counter early opposition by religious conservatives who say it will promote sexual promiscuity among young girls. We believe our pop culture’s worship of certain celebrities is more deserving of that blame than a vaccine.

Despite the advances, nearly 6 million women become infected with HPV each year in the United States and more than 4,000 die of cervical cancer. That is why the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Family Physicians all recommend girls receive the vaccine at the of age of 11 or 12.

It is still early in the presidential campaign season, and we all should brace ourselves for an onslaught of mudslinging from candidates — from both political parties. But we should not put up with misinformation, lies or scare tactics that candidates try to pass off as fact.

Bachmann should do more than apologize for her comments, she needs to repair the damage by admitting she was wrong.